It shouldn’t take new Virginia football assistant coach Mike Archer long to find his way around the Charlottesville campus, considering he already became well-acquainted with the place in the early 1990’s.

Archer, 60, was hired Thursday by U.Va. coach Mike London to become a defensive assistant coach on the Cavaliers’ staff. Archer’s exact title and job description will be determined at a later time, but he believes he’ll probably end up coaching safeties.

In 1991 and ’92, Archer was the linebackers coach at U.Va. under former coach George Welsh. Archer also worked from 2007-12 as North Carolina State’s defensive coordinator under Tom O’Brien, who is now U.Va.’s associate head coach for offense and tight ends coach.

At N.C. State, Archer worked on staff from 2010-12 with Jon Tenuta, who is now U.Va.’s associate head coach for defense and defensive coordinator. Archer, a native of State College, Pa. who played defensive back and punter from 1973-75 at Miami, and O’Brien were both U.Va. assistant coaches in the ’91 and ’92 seasons.

“When you’ve done something as long as I have, and you’re as competitive as I am, the itch was there,” said Archer, who has coached for 37 years, regarding his desire to get back into coaching after being part of the N.C. State staff that was fired at the end of the ’12 season and taking last season off.

“I wanted to get back into it in the right situation. I felt like (U.Va.) was the right situation because of my relationship with the university having been here before, my relationship with Jon Tenuta and we go back longer than my relationship with Tom O’Brien, who I worked for for six years.”

Archer said he and his wife stayed in Raleigh, N.C. last year while he was away from coaching. When he decided he wanted to get back into coaching, he was interested in moving to the National Football League – where he coached for seven seasons as an assistant coach with the Pittsburgh Steelers – but there were no available opportunities. He also had a few chances to get into broadcasting.

Archer's hiring puts U.Va.'s staff at full strength again after the departures earlier this month of former safeties coach Anthony Poindexter and former defensive line coach Vincent Brown to Connecticut. U.Va. hired Jerome Oliver this month to serve as its new defensive line coach.

The addition of Archer gives U.Va. four assistant coaches with experience as head coaches. Archer will also be the sixth coach on U.Va.’s staff with more than 30 years of coaching experience.

“Coach Archer has excellent coaching credentials and a track record of accomplishments,” said London in a statement released by U.Va.’s athletic department. “He will be a great teacher for our defensive players and his prior relationship with coach Tenuta will be a tremendous asset in our preparation for the upcoming season.”

In 1987, Archer became the youngest Bowl Subdivision head coach when he took over at Louisiana State, where he went on to compile a 27-18-1 record in four seasons, including going 10-1-1 in '87 and finishing No. 5 in the nation.

In addition to Tenuta and Archer, U.Va.’s assistant coaches with head coaching experience are offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Steve Fairchild (Colorado State 2008-11) and special teams coordinator and running backs coach Larry Lewis (Idaho State 1999-2006).

Archer worked in the NFL from 1996-2002 as the linebackers coach for Pittsburgh. He coached four Pro Bowl players (Jason Gildon, Levon Kirkland, Joey Porter and Kendrell Bell) during his tenure, and helped the Steelers have the NFL’s top rushing defense in ’02.

Archer has also had college assistant coaching stops at Miami (graduate assistant in ’76 and ’77, assistant coach in ’78, defensive backs coach from ’79-83), LSU (defensive backs coach in ’84, defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach in ’85 and ’86) and Kentucky (defensive backs and linebackers coach in ’93 and ’94, added assistant head coach to job description in ’95; defensive coordinator from 2003-06).

“I’ve been fortunate,” Archer said. “I’ve had that big office at the end (of the hallway). That’s great. That’s great on payday, and there’s a lot of pluses to it, and there’s a lot of minuses to it. The thing that I enjoy the most is sitting down and putting the game plan together, watching your team practice it and then going out on Saturday afternoons and executing it.”